Syrian state TV says President Bashar Assad has visited a Damascus campus, his second public appearance in a week.

The report says Assad inaugurated on Saturday a statue dedicated to “martyrs” from Syrian universities who died in the country’s two-year-old uprising and civil war.

A photograph posted on Assad’s Facebook page showed him surrounded by bodyguards as young men, who appeared to be students, waved at him.

Assad normally appears rarely in public. But on Wednesday, Assad visited a Damascus power station to mark May Day, according to the media.

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Assad’s visit came as Israeli officials confirmed the country’s air force carried out a strike against Syria, saying it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.